We have buses. They're all low floor buses and have GPS thingers, you can watch them all move on a digital map!!

Does Thunder Bay buses come with next stop voice announcement with the GPS system? Within 6 months all HSR buses in Hamilton will have GPS that includes next stop voice announcement, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)/ Automated Vehicle Location (AVL).

Oh and I forgot about our brand spanking new replica waterfront trolley buses!

I think they will have the voice announcement capabilities (the buses have microphones that drivers occasionally use to announce route changes) but I don't think they'll use it. We got the total package, though. NextBus GPS locaters and maps, little devices that count how many people are on the bus, and yhe GPS thing will also be able to change the destination sign automatically to point out the next major stop, without them having to change it manually. And I think they're installing those things where you have to tap the back door to make it open. I know the newer Novas have that but it's disabled right now. They've got a few other high tech things that we probably won't make much use of. So far, only routes 3 Northwood, 2, 8 and 9 have their GPS map things activated. I think the full system starts in a couple weeks. We're also getting bike racks.... in June. (Which means September.)

If you want a stop announced, let the driver know and he'll call it out to you. He'll even stop between stops, if you're young, elderly or disabled. In Thunder Bay, we're still allowed to talk to the bus drivers.

And there was a delightfully air-headed discussion about your replica trolley at CPTDB. Many people there think that because it is low floor, it has failed the replica aspect and is just a silly looking bus. I tried to talk logic into them but the people there are stubborn bus fetishists.

Hamilton has to have low floor public transit because of Human Rights complaints. It's the same story for the next stop voice announcement.

From the report...

"The Ontario Human Rights Commission contact with the City of Hamilton follows orders in the City of Toronto and the City of Ottawa to implement bus stop announcements of all bus stops in response to complaints in each of the two communities. It is expected by the OHRC that Hamilton will have system-wide bus stop announcement, manual or automated prior to year end."

Edmonton's LRT, only recently remembered by city planners and politicians, is now undergoing some real expansion with plans for north, west, and southeast extensions.

All photos by me.

The most recent station, Health Sciences (named for its proximity to the UofA's hospital and health sciences buildings).

Reading and delivering flowers on public transit. I got nothin'.

Corona Station. Corona.

The old paintjob.

The new paintjob.

The new south LRT portal between University and Health Sciences station, when it was under construction (2005).

Looking out from University Station towards the new tunnel leading up to Health Sciences station. It's hard to get a good sense of the steep grade, but it's the steepest on the system at 6%...the city actual had to refurbish the trains to handle it.

This is the ÜSTRA - Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe (UHV) 601, owned and operated by the non-profit Edmonton Radial Railway Society. They run it over the High Level Bridge May through October as a historical streetcar. Though it is not a historical Edmonton car, it is actually the precursor to the Siemens-Duwag U2 LRT cars currently in operation here (as well as in Calgary).

While really only exciting for nerds like me, here is the story behind this car, and how the ERRS got it.

Designed to board at street level, the base of the doors retract into steps when the doors open.

Hamilton has to have low floor public transit because of Human Rights complaints. It's the same story for the next stop voice announcement.

From the report...

"The Ontario Human Rights Commission contact with the City of Hamilton follows orders in the City of Toronto and the City of Ottawa to implement bus stop announcements of all bus stops in response to complaints in each of the two communities. It is expected by the OHRC that Hamilton will have system-wide bus stop announcement, manual or automated prior to year end."

We never got any complaints like that, they just wanted to be low floor so that they could say they were the first full system to be low floor. (Thunder Bay Transit, the oldest municipally operated public transit system, was the first one in Canada to be 100% low floor. ) And they've never had problems with the stops either. Blind passengers tell the driver where they want to get off, and the driver lets them know when they get there. They've always done it that way.

Theres some people who have quietely called for bus stop announcements in Calgary, but its something I don't forsee happening in any wide scale any time soon. Possibly on the BRT routes, as theres a lot fewer stops, but if you take a route the size of the 72 (164+ stops), or the 20 (169+ stops), there are just too many to do anything but automatic announcements, even of just the more notable stops (there are a lot of infrequently used ones, there are 2 on the 72 that I've never seen anyone get on or off at along University Drive for instance). People seem to have no problem asking the driver, or other passengers, if they aren't sure where they need to get off at (or for reassurance that the bus is really going the right direction thanks to some of the zig-zagging a few routes do)

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I remember the first time I rode one of these was about 15 years ago in Canon Beach, Oregon. They call them "fun cycles" there and they're quite a standard touristy thing to rent there. They're pretty good for riding over wet sand. Are they common around Montreal? I don't know if I've ever seen one around Vancouver but they're quite nice to ride so I don't know why they're not more common in general.

Here's to wishing Winnipeg had an LRT. I got off work finally, so this morning I drove from Yorkton to the Peg. I've never been there before so I has no fucking clue where I was going, I was trying to find some place to park downtown, and eventually did. Then I walked around the city for 4 hours, and now I'm spending the night in Portage la Prairie before heading back home tomorrow.

My feet are all blistered up, but it was worth it, I'll have to go back there sometime for an extended visit. I still feel weird walking around taking pictures of random buildings, but what ev.